Yep. Still with the lack of exitude.

Okay so it's theoretically climbable, but does it look like something she could actually climb?

Mmmmaybe not.

She considers.

Then she tosses her bag over the archway.

"Complete accident," she lies solemnly and outrageously. "Can you just open the door and let me go get it?"

The patch of ground she is standing on retreats rapidly through the hedge maze until she is standing on the inside of the inner gate. Then her bag comes zooming along to follow her. There's barely any sense of motion; it's like she's standing still while the world flows around her.

Well, it was worth a shot.

"So. Not going to let me out, is the impression I'm getting."

A hedge shuffles across the inner gateway.

Sigh.

She could try to fight it some more, but she thinks she gets the message. No need to risk injuring herself on something utterly pointless. It's kind of hard to escape a thing that has that kind of environmental control, especially when her heart's not really in it.

"Okay, fine, then take me to Tarakova, please?"

A block of polished granite with a door in it rises out of the ground.

She opens it.

It takes her to a courtyard where Tarakova is climbing a huge oak tree.

"Hey," she calls. "I'm pretty sure it's not going to let me out, I could maybe try to push it but I think that would just be inadvisable?"

He sighs and flops along an enormous branch, arms and tail dangling. "Yes, that's probably wise."

She walks through the door to sit at the base of the tree.

"So uh - can I ask why it wants me here...?"

"...I think it's - the person who made all this, one of the things they were was - a romantic... I don't know for sure, I never met them, I'm just guessing."

Navethae blinks.

"Um, okay. So... what does that mean?"

Frustrated gesture. "I don't - it - it might just mean it needs me to make a friend..."

"Someone to - vouch for how you're reformed and should be allowed free?" offers Navethae, hesitantly.

"No. It's for - it's that I - it would make a difference to me, I think, having someone I cared about."

"Oh. All right. Well, I bet I can be your friend. If you can put up with my sass, that is." Smile?

Snort.

"I'm - not happy about being trapped here but I'm glad I couldn't leave? I really don't want to just abandon you here alone."

He closes his eyes. "Thank you."

"Yeah."

She leans against the tree, and thinks.

"... Why just me in particular, though, you seemed to get along okay with my brother? And of the two of us he's usually the friendmaking one. What qualification am I fulfilling, here?"

"I don't know," he sighs. "Maybe your brother would."